LTjim

Reply to Winning against Suicidal AI? in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

The person I meant was Mumblefratz - the first one to post a reply in this very thread. Many have won at Suicidal, and many post that it is not that difficult once you get down certain things/tricks. You are likely to learn those insider things, exploits, whatever, if you join a clan in the metaverse and ask for help. I have not done that, trying instead to view re-inventing such a challenge of sorts. For example, it may be that the name you choose for y

Reply to Research Victory by Ally, and another possible victory quirk in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

I have just checked the Victory page for my DA game. I see not indication of the progress any other race but mine has made towards a victory. Sadly, I started a new game with research victory de-selected, compared the two victory pages, and the new one says research victory disabled (and the old one does not). I think I am screwed.

Reply to [Another] Alliance Victory question in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

Okay, here is the exact wording on my DA Victory screen: "Form Alliances with all the major races you're not currently at war with to win through Alliance victory." So, tell me why if there are 7 races left, if I have formed Alliances with 6 and am at war with one, why I would not have an Alliance victory? I have not managed that yet, mind you, but that situation would comply with that victory condition wording.

Reply to Winning against Suicidal AI? in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

A planet will produce research points ("flask") despite the empire's Research slider set to zero if the focus for the planet is set on research.

Reply to Research Victory by Ally, and another possible victory quirk in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

I would upgrade to TA, but I've not exhausted DA yet and I keep seeing the TA non-expanding AI threads, and the like. The various posts still leave me with the impression that TA is a prettier DA with some more features and chrome, but with less mature AIs to the point that it might not yet be as good as DA to play if the aspect of the game that one values highest (as I do) is competitive AIs. One aspect of race-unique techs is that - if they truly are different - they pose chal

Reply to Research Victory by Ally, and another possible victory quirk in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

I do not recall seeing any intel on other races on that page. Now, I play DA, so if it was changed in TA, I would not know it.

Reply to Winning against Suicidal AI? in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

No, no! Not at all! Many posters here have stated that they have won games at Suicidal. IIRC, many are posted on the Metaverse pages, and some AARs are posted in the forums. It is just very, very tough to win straight. One must seize certain potential advantages, and more. At Suicidal, the AIs have truly huge bonuses. Manu of the Metaverse clans have "secret" tricks and such that are cited as helping top win at Suicidal. I do not know those

Reply to [Another] Alliance Victory question in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

Okay - I agree that should be the intent and the coding. If I get a chance tonight, I will re-check those words and, if they are as i recalled, i will type them in a post here. If I misremember, I will state that. as well.

Reply to Research Victory by Ally, and another possible victory quirk in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

I know the page you mention. I did not recall that it differentiated between which victory conditins were "active" and which were not. Good intel, though, if it does. Will check that one tonight, also.

Reply to Winning against Suicidal AI? in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

I also do not play TA. Almost all my experience is with DA. In DA, if you waste resources to research any extreme colonization techs at Suicidal, you get drowned by the AIs. If you chose to be one of the AIs that begin with one or more extreme colonization techs as a mega-ability, the AIs will likely crush you with their own mega-abilities. There are a couple Suicidal AARs that may give you some ideas, but i do not know if any of them are TA. I have my

Reply to Research Victory by Ally, and another possible victory quirk in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

Thanx. I may be well and truly screwed then. I sure hope I did disable the Research Victory. One major reason that I have declined to negotiate with the AI that declared war on my 30+ turns ago is that I got that same announcement for them about 5 turns ago. That is, that they had reached that Reseach Victory doorstep. I have been crushing them under my foot at at high and accelerating pace ever since, trying to gut their research with spies, disable their ec

Reply to [Another] Alliance Victory question in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

I agree that what you said should be the intent. When I re-read the precise words on the page last night, though, I think they are as I stated! Maybe I'll check them again tonight.

[Another] Alliance Victory question in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

The wording of the Alliance Victory on the victory info page in the game, suggests that if one has an alliance with all non-minor AIs that the player is not presently at war with, then Alliance Victory has been achieved. Is that really the intended wording? A literal interpretation of that definition would include the following scenario: 1) One achieves an Alliance with one AI 2) With that Alliance sealed, the player declares war on all other AIs. Wo

Research Victory by Ally, and another possible victory quirk in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

If one's AI ally achieves a Research Victory, is it a win for the player? Or a defeat? If Research Victory is disabled, does the player still get the announcement that another empire has achieved the penultimate level in the Research Victory tree? In a Suicidal game, I cannot recall if I disabled the Research Victory or not, and one just got the announcement that one of my allies reached the one-step-before-Research-Victory level. Do I need to backstab them to stav

Reply to Help... dont know what im doing in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

As you increase the difficulty level in the game, the number of winning paths drop. Still, up to the level just above Tough (max CPU), I have found that there are many general courses that lead to wins. At those lower levels, one can even set up one's race to use a certain strategy and then change one's mind and take a path counter to the one for which the race had been optimized. For example, one can intend to head for a military win, get a home world or first colony with

Reply to i need help in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

I don't think you get to watch fleet battles if they do not involve your own ships. Sometimes, you get to see the battles happen at the map level, but that's it. Since all the AI versus AI battles happen at the end of the turn, those may be most of the ones that happen then. I'm not sure I can recall having seen battles initiated by an AI involving my own ships, either, but I am much less confident about this one. Maybe I'll get lucky in a game tonight and have

Reply to Randomly appearing technology in Bug Reports GalCiv2 Forums

I have not heard of your problem before, but i am confident that you do NOT have the latest version of the game installed. I think the latest DA is 2.01. You need to get Impulse to download the last patches.

Reply to What are the factors affecting research? in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

I have seen the following behavior in "time left" numbers indicated. When moving sliders around, the "time left" updates as I adjust. Some find that a useful way to apportion spending. When changing the count of facilities, or upgrading them, the "time left" does not update until the turn button is toggled. I suspect that the algorithm the game uses for that calculation does not update the count and type of facilities during the turn itself, though it may change th

Reply to What are the factors affecting research? in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

I'm not sure if your Qs are broad or narrow. For example, you did not mention Research bonuses in race set-up or from Research mining bases. Also, if Research works in a parallel fashion with Morale and some others, some Research rate gains may happen when you research certain things even if you do not build them. When one researches Banks, for example, there is an Economic gain empire-wide even if one does not build banks to get their bonus on the planets upon which they ar

Reply to Artificial Cowardice in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

May I suggest a different take on the data in the above posts? If: 1)You want more of a challenge, and 2) The AI is a bit limited during the Colony Rush phase, then 3) Adjust the game set-up to shorten the Colony Rush phase. One way is to reduce the number of empty habitable planets, perhaps by making the galaxy smaller or by changing the habitable planets setting, or even both. If there is an option to eliminate adverse environment planets that c

Reply to Please explain why the AI isn't broken in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

YAQW! In DA, there are no race-unique tech trees and a bit less visual buffs - so yes it is a bit different visually. If you start too much on top of another race, restart with the control-N tool or something. I think the lack of race-unique things may help the AI and all the reviews I read that praised the AI pre-dated TA. That is, I bought DA/DL before TA came out, so the TA reviews would obviously not existed. So, it is possible that the AI

Reply to Bug help in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

I had a somewhat similar experience in that - in DA sandbox games - I suddenly found that I was teamed with one or two races at the start. The fix that finally worked for me was to specify which other races were in thge game (instead of random which was my normal method), and to then manually reset all the initial dispositions towards me to some level like Neutral. The game that began then did not have that problem, and I do not think I have seen it again since.

Reply to Please explain why the AI isn't broken in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

tppytel - No, seriously, I meant it when I said the DA game is more mature than the TA one. It is further into the product cycle of issue-debug-patch-tweak-tweak. Like I said, try DA on Tough max CPU - or perhaps just one level above Tough to give the AI a bit of equ

Reply to Please explain why the AI isn't broken in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

Did you try Dark Avatar? I have not played TA yet, but my take from the posts here is that it might be less mature a game, having not had the number of patches DA has gained that may have helped gameplay. My general approach in games is to learn the mechanics at the toughest AI settings that do not include any artificial bonuses. After that, I expect the game to be interesting with a small bonus to the AI. DA seems to manage that, especially on the largest set

Reply to dark avatar espionage question in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

Did you use Impulse? You need to do that to get the last patches.